Fractionation column equipment



Sep't. 22,1936. I B.-IMCICONNELL 2,055,301

FRAGTIONATIONICOLUMN EQUIPMENT Filed Dec. 10, 1934 INVENTOR.

@ 9 I ciizofi-Z 776 i BY- Say, v

ATTORNEYS Patented Sept. 22, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 3 Claims.

In my Patent No. 1,865,400 there is set forth a construction making possible the trapping out of a stream from any given plate of a fractionating column without disturbing the relative conditions. My present invention provides an improvement on this construction.

In the construction referred to in said patent two openings are provided in one or more plates of a fractionating column and one of these openings leads to the plate below while the other leads to a draw off. The object of the invention in both instances is to trap out a portion of the material on one plate without disturbing relative conditions and this is sought to be accomplished in the patented construction by providing a sliding closure member, common to both openings, which proportionately varies the cross sectional area of the openings. In the present application the object is to vary the extent of periphery of the two openings, that. is, whileone periphery is increasing the other periphery is decreasing in direct proportion at all times. In the patented construction while the cross sectional area of one opening is increasing the cross sectional area of the other opening is decreasing in proportion, but the peripheral extent of each opening does not vary in proportion at all times.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the invention, then, comprises the features hereinafter fully described, and particularly pointed out in the claims, the following description and the annexed drawing setting forth in detail certain illustrative embodiments of the invention, these being indicative however, of but i a few of the various ways in which the principle of the invention may be employed.

In said annexed drawing:--

Fig. 1 is a schematic side elevation, partly broken, of a fractionating column in accordance with the invention; Fig. 2 is a sectional view, on enlarged scale, taken on a plane indicated by the line 11-11, Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a detail sectional view taken on a plane indicated by the line III-III, Fig, 2; Fig. 4 is a section taken on a plane indicated by the line IV-IV, Fig. 2; and Fig. 5 is a view corresponding to Fig. 2, showing a modification.

The fractionating column in general may be of any desired design and construction providing plates, and may comprise a column shell 2, with inlet 3 and outlet 4, and plates 5 in number as desired. The plates have constant level overflows 6, and means of any convenient form for diverting the rising vapor under the liquid, for example bell caps 'l of any usual or preferred detail. On

- influenced by capillarity, and the flow opening is thus proportional to the periphery prethe plate also is an overflow, 8 leading to the plate below, and adjacent such overflow or opening is another overflow or opening 9 leading to a point without the column, for instance by a conduit ID. A regulable or openable and closable control 5 for the adjacent overflows is arranged, as in the form of a slide H guided in suitable guideways such as guides l2. A control rod l3 with any convenient operating means, such as a handle 14, extends through thecolumn-shell 2 to a point 10 outside for allowing manipulation and setting to the desired point. A stufling box IE may be provided to prevent leakage around the rod. By the arrangement of graduations I6 on the rod, in convenient scale of percentage or dimension as 15 desired, the set or position of the slide may be easily indicated on the outside. An additional guide 20 may be provided for the rod I3 with advantage. A weir or level 11 is desirably positioned between the trap-out and'the bells. In its detail 2 construction, the slide l l, as indicated in Fig. 2, is provided with a notched edge l8, ill, for each of the adjacent openings 8, 9, such notches being of curved form, and providing incremental proportional increase and decrease of the adjoining 25 openings as the slide is moved in one direction, and vice versa, As a further refinement the curves of notch outline may be laid out on a sweep of paraboloid form. The ends of the openings 8, 9, may also be of a. paraboloid form. In the form shown in Fig. 5, the notched edges I8, 19', instead of being curved, are laid on straight lines, the slide again affecting a proportioned opening of one overflow and closing the other, or vice versa, as moved. 5

The liquid passing through the openings in the fractionating plate does not flow as a solid stream of the cross sectional area of the opening, but. seeps over the periphery of the opening, being for. each 40 sented for overflow.

Any of the plates of the column as preferred may be provided with such trap-out regulator means, and in a fractionating column operating 45 on distillate vapors which are of mixed character, such as for instance in the c se of petroleum, will thus permit obtaining accurate side streams at any plate desired. The control ll maybe set by handle l4, proportioning the amount of opening 50 and closure between the adjacent overflows down to the next plate and outside, as desired in any given instance, the gauge I6 serving to indicate the position.

Other modes of applyingthe principle may be 55 employed, change being made as regards the details described, provided the means stated in any of the following claims, or the equivalent of such, be employed.

I therefore particularly point out and distinctly claim as my inventlonz- 1. In a device of the character described, a closed shell, a substantially horizontal plate therein having an opening at overflow level, a second opening adjacent thereto, a conduit leading from said last mentioned opening to a point outside said shell, and a regulable closure member, in common for said-openings for simultaneously closing one opening and opening the other, said openings and closure member being so shaped and positioned that said member causes the peripheral extent of one to increase in direct proportion to the decrease of the peripheral extent of the other, said closure member having a notched edge for each opening.

2. In a device of the character described, a.

closed shell, a substantially horizontal plate therein having an opening at overflow level, a second opening adjacent thereto, a conduit leading from said last mentioned opening to a point outside said shell, and a regulable closure memher, in common for said openings for simultaneously closing one opening and opening the other, said openings and closure member being so shaped and positioned that said member causes the peripheral extent of one to increase in direct proportion to the decrease of the peripheral extent of the other, said closure member having a curved notched edge for each opening.

3. In a device of the character described, a closed shell, a substantially horizontal plate therein having an opening at overflow level, a

second opening adjacent thereto, a conduit leading from said last mentioned opening to a point outside said shell, and a regulable closure member, in common for said openings for simultaneously closing one opening and opening the other,

said openings and closure member being so shaped and positioned that said member causes the peripheral extent of one to increase in direct proportion to the decrease of the peripheral extent of the other, said closure member having a curved notched edge for each opening, laid out on a sweep of paraboloid form, and said openings having their contours in" a paraboloid form.

ELLIOTT MCCONNELL.

CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION.

Patent NO. 2,055,301. September 22, 1956.

ELLIOTT B. MCCONNELL.

It is hereby certified that the above numbered patent was erroneously issued to the inventor said "McConnell" whereas said patent should have been issued to The Standard Oil Company (Ohio) Cleveland, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio, as assignee of the entire interest in said invention as shown by the records of assignments in this office; and that the said Letters Patent should be read with this correction therein that the same may conform to the record of the case in .the Patent Office. I

Signed and sealed this 1st day of; December, A D. 1956,

Henry Van Arsdale (Seal) Acting Commissioner of Patents. 

